6th Friedrich World Championship 2011
The Qualification Round
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A: In the Qualification Round, 20 games were played. Remarkable results were:
Game 1: After 12 turns the Prussian defense (Andreas Zölitz) is collapsing zusammen. After the death of the Tsarina, Bernd Preiß pulls off an Imperial Army victory.Game 2: Mark Luta takes better care of the Imperials. However, after subsidy reduction in turn 9, France cannot longer be stopped. Manfred Wichmann wins in turn 14. Game 3: Klaus Blum's Prussia has to struggle with a very bad fate: The first fate-card is Poems. Lord Bute follows in turn 13. France drops out not before turn 18, and it would have take up to turn 21 for the Tsarina's death to happen. However, before that Steffen Schröder's Austrians are victorious (turn 20). Game 4: Sebastian Wetter's Prussian house is almost never burning. Only Alex Hofmanns French are a bit annoying. Therefore, on both sides, the TC stacks are growing and growing. Finally, in turn 19, it's over: the Tsarina dead, Prussia wins. Game 5: Peter Hannappel's Friedrich is chasing Hildburghausen with 7 armies! Against Russia (Anton Telle) Peter's defense is crumbling rapidly. Only the Gollnow-fortress rescues Peter. Later, the Prussians survive an encirclement in Silesia only with big luck. Eventually, one turn before game end, Maurice de Wijs is victorious with Austria. |
 Game 3: Klaus Blum watches carefully Steffen Schröder's move with Russia. In the foreground you can see the Austrian TC's (Andrew Brown).  Game 4: Alex Hofmann is happy! A minute ago, the composer Händel has died. Therefore, in the city of Halle no combat is allowed. So it is good for Alex that his Soubise is just sitting on Halle! |
 Game 6: Steffen Schröder is counting his troops for a big battle in Silesia.  Game 9: Mark Luta watches the moves of Andrew Brown's French generals. |
Game 6: Daniel Dunbring, the 2010 champion, is suffering bad fate (Lord Bute, turn 8). Also his opponents are a nightmare. Steffen Schröder's Austrians and Maurice de Wijs' Russians are hard to stop. Finally, both Austria and Russia win in turn 10. Game 7: Anton Telle is never in danger in bringing back home his Prussians for victory. Fate was kind to him: France left in turn 8, the Tsarina followed 2 turns later. Later, Christian Blattner's Austria is even invaded by the blue guys – as if it were an offensive option. Game 8: At the next table Peter Hannappels Sweden pray for the Tsarina's death in turn 6, since they have conquered all first order objectives. However, Sweden leaves the war at this turn 6. Only one turn later the Tsarina dies. Bad luck, Peter! Really bad luck! – The game is won by Marian Leimbach with Prussia in turn 18. Game 9: Bernd Preiß has a hard time fighting and cursing. Especially Alex Hofmann Russian hordes are everywhere. And Mark Luta's Austria is close to victory in turn 12 to 14. However, Bernd finally wins in turn 16. Game 10: After an early exit of Russia, it seems like it is an easy win for Prussia (Manfred Wichmann). If he could only count correctly: Out of a sudden Manni is sure that a general can move only 3 cities on a mainroad. Therefore he sends Seydlitz and Friedrich away from their protection duties (Magdeburg). Soubise is happy and conquers the unprotected city on a mainroad-move. It will take almost all Prussian spades to reconquer Magdeburg before Diepholz falls to the French as well. A damned close thing! |
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Game 11: Maurice de Wijs won his first two games, but now he makes a big blunder: The French are close to Magdeburg, and Seydlitz is sent too late for rescue. Marian Leimbach wins (turn 8). Game 12: Andrew Brown as Prussia takes every opportunity to fight, no matter whether it is a cross-sector battle or nor. His Prussia breaks down fast (turn 10). All powers were hard pressing. In the end Stephan Jordan is the winner with Austria. Game 13: Greg Rogers, FWC debutant has strong opponents: Mark Luta, Steffen Schröder and Sebastian Wetter are assaulting almost every turn. Mark will win with Russia (turn 8). Game 14: Malte Heinrich manages to win with Prussia after 21 turns of a grueling defensive battle. Prussia has lost subsidies quite early (turn 7 and 10) and the major powers dropped out very late (Russia turn 19, France turn 21). Bravo, Malte! Game 15: The Prussia of Arnold de Wijs has to fight with Austrians at Quedlinburg. Andreas Zölitz is gambling for an Imperial Army win. However, it will be Manfred Wichmann who makes his third win (with Russia in turn 17). |
 Game 12: Daniel Dunbring, Stephan Jordan and Anton Telle high focused. Andrew Brown is Prussia at this table.  Game 14: Bernd Preiß is moving his Russians, while Hannappel thinks through his Austrians options. |
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 Game 18: Malte Heinrich and Maurice de Wijs moving almost simultaneously.  Game 19: A view through the hall. The table in the front is game 19 with Alex Hofmann as Prussia. |
Game 16: Steffen Schröder has also only little problems with his Prussians. Elisabeth dies in turn 8, France is bankrupt in turn 14, Prussia wins in turn 18. Game 17: Guy Atkinson, another FWC debutant, has to fight with subsidy reductions right from the start (the first fatecard). One turn before Russia would have left the game, he loses against Anton Telle's Imperial Army. Prussia manages to deny a French victory in the same turn, however. Game 18: Stephan Jordan tries everything, however, after 15 turns it's over. Sebastian Wetter's Russians are winning in turn 15. Game 19: Alex Hofmann wins with Prussia. A lot of fighting, fate is good and bad (early subsidy loss, but also an early dead Tsarina), but finally Prussia wins in turn 20. Game 20: Christian Blattner has to switch over to the hundred-of-flies-defense quite early. Late in the game he even sends to generals with 8 armies each without any diamonds into a suicide mission. (Did you ever know that Kamikaze was invented in Prussia?) The suicied mission was necessary to reach an automatic tie on the attack (with no diamonds and equal number of armies, it will be a tie.), and with this 2 ties, Christian wins another turn protecting Radeberg. However, even these sophisticated tricks do not help. Eventually, Manfred Wichmann wins his fourth game in a row: Austria in turn 20. Wow! This never happened before! A player won all of his 4 qualification round games! |
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B: Ranking after the qualification round
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 Game 17: Guy Atkinson moves his Prussians. Andreas Zölitz, Anton Telle and Mark Luta watch carefully. The white spot in the back is the FWC trophy.  Game 20: How to defend in diamonds without any diamonds? Christian Blattner shows you how to do: Move 2 generals into attack position. Have no diamonds, and have the same number of troops like the defenders. Then it is an automatic tie. That means that Austria cannot attack the leftmost Prussian general who will therfore still protect Radeberg. (Do not ask what will happen to the encircled Prussians in the Austrian turn. Of course they will be gunfodder.) |
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 Manfred Wichmann receives the Fair-Ehrensvärd-Award for being the fairest player in the qualification round. |
So, as the best four of the qualification round Manfred Wichmann, Steffen Schröder, Sebastian Wetter and Bernd Preiß entered the final. The final started at 5 p.m. Manfred Wichmann as highest-ranked player had first choice of the role. Steffen Schröder had second choice, and so on. It should be mentioned, that until now no player had ever won all 4 games in the qualification round. Manfred Wichmann wrote history! Furthermore, it is the first time that no finalist of the previous year entered this year's final. However, 3 of the finalists are no new faces: Bernd is 2008 world champion and this is now his third final game. Steffen will play his third final as well, and Manfred will play his second final. Manfred also won the trophy for the fairest player: the Fair Ehrensvärd 2011. |